Training in Early Childhood Mental Health Research

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite scientific advances, there is an acute need for sophisticated, socially-relevant, multidisciplinary collaborative research to build our capacity to promote all youngsters' mental health, to prevent the problems that jeopardize their social and academic futures, and to help all types of communities adopt and sustain effective interventions. The Penn State Child Study and Prevention Research Centers jointly propose a collaborative program for 16 pre- and 8 post-doctoral trainees, to prepare them to increase the fund of clinically relevant developmental knowledge, generate sensitive, developmentally-guided, empirically-supported assessment and interventions, convert scientific evidence into community-based practices, and use experience in the community to guide research efforts. The two-year training program integrates developmental and intervention science integrating 3 research themes: (1) neurocognitive-behavioral relations across-domains in developmental psychopathology, (2) mediators and moderators of efficacy of empirically-supported interventions, and (3) developmental analyses of families-at-risk in context. Through training in basic and applied research labs, coursework, and innovative integrative activities, fellows will acquire specific skills in developmental and applied science, writing grants, and collaborating across disciplines and with community partners that will accelerate their ability to contribute substantially to funded research in early childhood mental health. The participating 17 faculty represent a corps of Penn State researchers who bridge these areas and can provide training opportunities on a large number of collaborative, multidisciplinary, funded research projects.